Rand Paul caught once again

[Playinghardball]

After Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was caught presenting others’ work as his own by The Rachel Maddow Show, BuzzFeed, and Politico, the senator’s office seemed to realize Paul had a problem on his hands. It reached the point late Friday that the senator’s aides started making it more difficult to access Paul’s speeches, perhaps fearful more evidence would come to light.

Unfortunately for the senator, it’s too late to hide op-eds Paul has already written and published. Andrew Kaczynski reported last night:

Sections of an op-ed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote on mandatory minimums in The Washington Times in September appear nearly identical to an article by Dan Stewart of The Week that ran a week earlier. The discovery comes amid reports from BuzzFeed that Paul plagiarized in his book and in several speeches.

Paul also delivered testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 16, 2013, that included the copied sections.

As the controversy has grown over the last week, Paul has done his best to change the subject, complaining about those who’ve noticed him presenting others’ work as his own, trying to redefine words like “plagiarism” and “footnotes,” and complaining that he’s being held to an unreasonable “standard.”

The senator’s pushback hasn’t helped, in part because it’s unpersuasive, and in part because it’s unrelated to the issue at hand.

One assumes Paul will be more careful going forward, but over the last three years, he’s given lots of speeches, written plenty of op-eds, and even published a couple of books. And if the last week is any indication, the closer one looks at the senator’s body of work, the more evidence emerges that Paul has an ugly habit he’s refused to acknowledge or apologize for.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rand-paul-caught-once-again

Discovered on the Obamadiary

[gordianot]

1. This is going to continue for a long time, the dueling comment will elicit much payback.

Mouth meet foot. No Politician in their right mind will defend him.

[malaise]

2. Please proceed

Rand Paul

[COLGATE4]

3. A physician who creates his own "Board" to

certify himself as a specialist rather than submit to the rigorous examination required of real specialists certainly has no problem in plagiarizing words and thoughts from others' sources. Dishonest is dishonest.

[Gothmog]

4. Rand Paul is now throwing his staff under the bus

It took a while but Rand Paul is finally making the move that most pundits have been expecting. Rand Paul is now blaming his staff for these issues http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-blames-plagiarism-on-staff-implements-new-citation-policy

Sen. Rand Paul's office on Tuesday admitted in a statement that some of the Kentucky senator's speeches were poorly sourced and not properly vetted, after several news reports accused him of plagiarism.

Doug Stafford, Paul's senior advisor, said that the senator always uses his own ideas, but relies on staff to provide support.

"Sen. Paul also relies on a large number of staff and advisers to provide supporting facts and anecdotes – some of which were not clearly sourced or vetted properly," Stafford said in the statement.

It is clear that Paul did not write these speeches and so it was only a matter of time before Rand Paul used his staff as scapegoats.